Did Genesis Tease The GV80 SUV In This Subtle Safety Video?

Here’s something we weren’t expecting to find. Actually, we tip our hat to Korean Car Blog for catching the above video, which recently posted on Hyundai Motor Groups YouTube channel. As far as videos go, it’s not terribly interesting. It’s a computer-generated affair demonstrating vehicle safety systems, but the vehicle in question is where the real excitement lies. That looks suspiciously like the Genesis GV80 concept SUV we saw way back in 2017 at the New York Auto Show.

Big deal, right? Hyundai used a computer-generated version of its Genesis-branded concept SUV in a video, but take a closer look. The rendered people mover in this clip resembles the concept, but it’s not an exact copy by any means. Sculpting on the sides is different, and the roof doesn’t slope down as we see on the concept. The side mirrors are significantly different as well – the video rendering features mirrors that look like production components versus what we saw on the concept. In fact, the whole thing looks more like a production vehicle than a concept. Interesting.

With all that information in mind, could this otherwise sedate video actually be showing us the first luxury SUV from Genesis? We can’t believe such a thing would’ve gone through Hyundai’s corporate channels unnoticed; perhaps its simply a willy-nilly SUV mockup with no connection to anything, save for a resemblance to the GV80 concept. For that matter it could be an early take on the concept vehicle that was rehashed for this video.

However, it could also be a clever teaser from Hyundai, giving us a rough idea of how the luxury people mover will look. We know development is underway; it’s just a question of when it will arrive. In any case, we’ll be watching closely to see if anything new happens to sneak out of the automaker’s social media channels in the weeks and months to come.